Intel's 56th anniversary: ​​From Silicon Valley to the AI ​​era

This is a photo that freezes history. It shows 106 Intel employees taking a group photo outside the then Mountain View factory, taken in 1969.

The two people standing in the front row are Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, co-founders of Intel. Noyce looks directly at the camera, while Moore looks into the distance. Andy Grove, who later led Intel to become the world's largest semiconductor company, is on the far right of the second row, with his hands in his pockets. These three influential figures have very different personalities. Noyce is a charismatic spiritual leader, Moore is a gifted technical master, and Grove is a vigorous and vigorous management wizard.

Just one year ago on July 18, Noyce and Moore, who had co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor, set up their own chip company, Intel, in Mountain View, California, and Grove joined them. Three years later, Intel produced the world's first programmable microprocessor, the 4004, and has since become the leader in semiconductor technology innovation, leading innovation in PCs, data centers and other fields, and promoting the process of computing technology change.

Today, on the 56th anniversary of Intel's founding, we use three famous quotes from three Intel figures as clues to trace how Intel has used the power of chip technology to influence the information age and open the door to the future in its development history spanning half a century.

Achieve perfection in everything you do

"Silicon Valley" got its name from the prosperity of the semiconductor industry in the late 1960s, and Robert Noyce, one of the founders of Intel, made an indelible contribution to this. It was Noyce who invented the commercial integrated circuit based on silicon transistors in 1959. Since then, a large number of semiconductor devices have been produced and applied, and semiconductor start-ups have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Silicon Valley was born, and Noyce is also known as the "Father of Silicon Valley."

Gordon Moore, another Intel founder, proposed a prophecy in 1965 that has influenced the transformation of information technology to this day: Moore's Law. Like an invisible commander, it has formulated an action program for the semiconductor industry, promoted the development of a series of technologies and applications from personal computers to smartphones, from the Internet to cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, and has become an important force in promoting economic growth and social change.

Gordon Moore once said, "In everything we do, we strive for perfection." This sentence inspires us to go beyond existing technology and create the world of tomorrow.

Intel is a staunch executor and defender of Moore's Law. Through innovation and leadership in microprocessors, technical standards, manufacturing processes and ecosystems, it has gradually popularized computing technology and profoundly influenced the development of modern human society.

From the early 1970s to the late 1990s, Intel invented a series of milestone microprocessors, setting off a global PC revolution. The world's first programmable microprocessor 4004, the world's first 8-bit single-chip microprocessor 8008, the 8086/8088 microprocessors that pioneered the x86 architecture and the commercialization of microprocessors... These epoch-making chip products changed the public's traditional perception of computers and accelerated the transformation of the PC industry. As PCs entered thousands of households, Intel quickly grew into one of the world's most important semiconductor companies and a household technology brand.

Entering the 21st century, Intel once again led the mobile computing revolution. The Centrino platform launched in 2003 integrated processors, chipsets and wireless network adapters, significantly improving the performance, battery life and portability of laptops, and pushing the PC industry into the wireless mobile era. This technological innovation has changed people's work and lifestyles, making remote work, online learning and mobile entertainment possible. Since then, laptops have entered various scenarios from "thousands of households", and people can use laptops to study, entertain and work anytime and anywhere in airports, coffee shops, classrooms and other places.

Today, the PC ecosystem is inspired by AI, and Intel is leading the trend. At the end of 2023, the launch of the Core Ultra processor will mark the full entry of the PC industry into the AI ​​era. PCs can run large models with tens of billions of parameters without an Internet connection, truly becoming a new quality productivity tool. Intel's next-generation AI PC flagship processor Lunar Lake will also be shipped this year, with a platform computing power of 120 TOPS. This makes people look forward to AI PCs recreating the "Centrino moment" of the year and bringing profound changes to our lives.

Continuous innovation in process technology has provided support for Intel's rich product portfolio covering cloud, edge and end: from introducing FinFET fin field-effect transistor technology into the 22nm process node, to the steady progress of the "four-year five nodes" plan, and the use of RibbonFET all-around gate transistor architecture and PowerVia back-side power supply technology at the two angstrom-level nodes of Intel 20A and Intel 18A... Today, the number of transistors in a device has reached hundreds of billions, and Intel is sprinting towards the goal of integrating one trillion transistors in a single package by 2030.

Only the paranoid survive

The semiconductor industry is ever-changing, and Intel has also reached a thrilling strategic turning point. Based on its deep technical foundation, it has continuously adapted to the wave of innovation through transformation.

Looking back to the 1980s, Intel resolutely decided to abandon its previous accumulation in the memory business and transform itself into a microprocessor company. It was this strategic choice that made Intel rise in the future - in 1992, Intel became the world's largest semiconductor company thanks to its success in the PC market.

Andy Grove, former chairman and CEO of Intel, is known for his insight into changes in the technology industry. He has repeatedly turned the tide and led Intel out of crisis and became stronger. During his tenure, he not only led Intel to regroup and stand at the forefront of computing changes, but also left behind management theories on how companies can survive major changes.

In the book Only the Paranoid Survive, Grove summarized his in-depth thinking on Strategic Inflection Points. "Strategic inflection points are those fundamental changes faced by enterprises, which can completely change the operating environment of enterprises." Grove mentioned in the book that new technologies and new methods can overturn the old order, establish new rules, and bring about earth-shaking changes in the business environment. And perceiving, sensing and controlling strategic inflection points are crucial to the survival and success of enterprises.

The explosion of artificial intelligence technology is seen as another strategic turning point facing the industry. The semiconductor market driven by AI will reach $1 trillion by 2030. Despite fierce competition, Intel has unique advantages and can fully meet the future AI market demand from semiconductor manufacturing to products. The IDM 2.0 strategy is the choice made by Intel at this "strategic turning point". It combines Intel's own design and manufacturing advantages, while using external resources to respond to market changes in a more flexible and competitive way to meet the evolving needs of customers.

As the key to the IDM 2.0 strategy, the "Four Years and Five Nodes" plan, which aims to regain the advantage in semiconductor manufacturing, is considered ambitious and even "crazy" by the industry. Intel's current CEO Pat Gelsinger once admitted that Intel is rebuilding a "Grove-style" culture, which is centered on "discipline, engineering, excellence, and data." For more than three years, Intel has been actively showing the outside world every progress in process technology to show its determination and execution to return to the leading position. "Every day, our confidence is growing. When we proposed this plan three years ago, people said that this was too bold, and now the plan is about to be achieved. My confidence in the team's execution is growing, and we will realize all the plans." In a public interview not long ago, Gelsinger expressed his confidence in promoting the IDM 2.0 strategy. At the beginning of this year, Intel announced the launch of system-level foundry for the AI ​​era, and actively participated in the AI ​​market through a comprehensive foundry business covering wafer manufacturing, packaging, core particles and software. In addition, Intel also announced the next technology roadmap after the "Four Years and Five Nodes".

Intel's key products continue to be launched on time. In less than a year, Intel has launched two AI PC processors, Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake, with the latter achieving a 3x improvement in AI performance. In addition, the first Intel Xeon 6 processor with energy efficiency cores was released, and the Xeon 6 processor with performance cores will be available in the third quarter.

The right strategy and its step-by-step execution are helping Intel seize opportunities in the AI ​​era.

Don't be bound by history, let go and create brilliance

The rapid development of technology and continuous innovation, breaking through the past with courage and embracing the future with wisdom, interpret the spirit of Silicon Valley. As Robert Noyce, the founder of Intel, said, "Don't be bound by history, let go and create brilliance." Intel, which laid the foundation for Silicon Valley, is ready to take off in the AI ​​era.